BlueNote Networks on Monday added two voice-interaction services to its VoIP web-services offering, allowing companies to build interactions such as automated phone calls or text messages into business applications.

The company added two new web services to its SessionSuite product: the Outbound Notification Solution Framework (ON-SF), for outbound notifications, and the Session Interaction Plugin Framework (SI-PF), for interactive sessions such as automated telephone communications.

Outbound notifications can be handled over channels such as voice, SMS, fax or email, and the application automatically handles aspects such as queuing, retries and filtering based on the time of day, BlueNote said.

SessionSuite is based on SIP, the protocol which sets up multimedia communications, applying the same application programming interface (API) to text, voice and video interaction, BlueNote said.

The idea of ON-SF is to allow SIP messaging functions to be integrated with business applications so that various events can trigger a personalised notification. For instance, an airline could inform passengers of upgrade status or itinerary changes, or a financial institution could deliver stock alert messages.

BlueNote is targeting specific vertical markets, including healthcare and higher education. One of its customers, Northern Kentucky University in the US, is currently testing the system by offering notifications on university opening hours to students.

SI-PF is intended as a simpler alternative to the more specialised VoiceXML, allowing organisations to create interactive media applications using familiar web-service APIs. The use of standard APIs means such applications can be integrated with any other SIP media, BlueNote said.

Both services will be available at the end of December. Pricing has not been revealed.

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